The following report from Compass Direct gives shocking detail of the severe persecution - that includes harassment, imprisonment, humiliation, beatings, torture and threat of execution - being meted out to Eritrean Protestants over recent months.

On 30 May 2002, the WEA RLC reported that Eritrean government had officially closed all churches other than the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Mekane Yesus (Evangelical Lutheran) denominations. As the WEA RLC report noted, the crackdown came as a surprise. The Compass report below, supports the speculation that the crackdown could be the result of pressure from the Orthodox Church. A evangelical revival movement has blossomed from within the Orthodox Church, and evangelical Protestants in the community have grown in faith and number.

The problems of Eritrean believers are compounded by the fact that they are incredibly isolated. In September 2001 the Eritrean government closed down all private media. The government then rounded up its critics - members of parliament, senior government officials and independent journalists - and silenced them. They are allegedly kept in undisclosed places of detention. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says that foreign journalists cannot operate freely in Eritrea either. As such, victims of government oppression and human rights abuses in Eritrea have no voice. In such a situation there is concern that the cost of information might be high -- but then the cost of silence might be higher. This situation requires urgent prayer (advocacy to the highest authority).

- Elizabeth Kendal

**********************************FLASH NEWS from COMPASS DIRECTGlobal News from the Frontlines**********************************

ERITREA JAILS 170 PROTESTANT CHRISTIANSAnother 74 Still Held in Military PrisonSpecial to Compass

Summary:

ASMARA, Eritrea, April 9 (Compass) -- A total of 170 ProtestantChristians have been jailed, beaten and threatened with death byEritrean security forces in a harsh crackdown during February andMarch. In five separate incidents, police barged into worshipservices and a wedding ceremony to jail men, women and children forpracticing what government officials called "a new religion."Although no formal charges were filed against them, the jailedProtestants were held in cramped, suffocating cells for up to twoweeks for refusing to return to the historically dominant OrthodoxChurch faith. One group of detainees endured 15 days in metalcontainers designed as severe punishment cells. Another congregationwitnessed its pastor being tortured and humiliated in the jail yard.When relatives posted bail for their release, they were forced tosign a statement acknowledging that if a bailed prisoner was caughtmeeting in public or private with more than three others, he wouldbe liable for execution.

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Full Story:

ASMARA, Eritrea, April 9 (Compass) -- A total of 170 ProtestantChristians have been jailed, beaten and threatened with death byEritrean security forces in a harsh crackdown during February andMarch.

Since the Asmara government closed 12 Pentecostal and charismaticchurches last May, the tiny nation along the eastern tip of Africahas stalled official registration status for all of these youngProtestant churches, now containing more than 20,000 believers.

In five separate incidents in four cities over the past two months,Eritrean security police barged into worship services and even awedding ceremony to jail men, women and children for practicing whatgovernment officials called "a new religion."

All the prisoners were held incommunicado while under arrest. Theywere eventually released individually on bail to relatives orfriends, who were forced to put up their personal property as bondto secure their release. No formal charges were filed against them,nor did they ever appear before a court of law.

The Eritrean government recognizes only four "official" religions,identified as Orthodox Christian (40 percent), Muslim (50 percent),Catholic (5 percent) and Evangelical Christian, a Protestant churchbegun in the late 19th century by Swedish Lutheran missionaries, (2percent).

The jailed Protestants, who were detained in humiliating conditionsfrom three to 15 days, were subjected to repeated beatings, cursingand threats for refusing to return to the historically dominantOrthodox Church faith.

In the first incident on February 16, seventeen members of the RemaChurch in Adi-Quala, 70 miles south of the capital Asmara, werearrested by security police while holding Sunday worship in amember's home. All were jailed for 15 days, including the widowhosting the gathering and three other older women. Some of theprisoners were reportedly beaten with sticks.

Two weeks later, security police raided a rented hall during awedding ceremony for a young Pentecostal couple in the coastal cityof Massawa. The church leader conducting the March 2 marriageservice was arrested after the ceremony concluded and jailed forfive days.

The following week, 36 members of the Full Gospel Church werearrested for three days when they gathered in a member's home inKeren, a Muslim-dominated town 55 miles northwest of Asmara. Localpolice claimed that Muslims in the neighborhood had complained tothem about the March 9 gathering. The imprisoned congregationincluded 16 women and seven soldiers. The soldiers received severebeatings and hard labor punishments when sent back to military duty.

On March 16, seventy-two members of three congregations in Asmarawere arrested during a prayer and preaching service in a member'shome in the Setanta Otoo district of the capital. Police jailed theworshippers from the Kale Hiwot Church, the Full Gospel Church andthe Rema Church in metal container cells at the Maiserwa MilitaryPrison near Keren. Although most of the prisoners were young people,a Rema Church elder in his 60's was among them.

Designed as severe punishment cells, the metal containers had nowindows and only a small door, subjecting the prisoners to nearsuffocation and intense physical discomfort. After 15 days, securitypolice allowed families to "bail" their jailed relatives, issuing astern warning to them that the Pentecostal believers must neveragain try to meet for worship or evangelize anyone, anywhere.

In the last reported incident on March 23, members of Asmara'sPhiladelphia Church were meeting for choir practice and Bible studyon Sunday afternoon when some 15 policemen armed with machine guns,pistols and long sticks entered the premises. The 40 people present,three of them children, were taken by bus to Police Station No. 4 inthe Paradiso district, where officers reportedly kicked and beatsome of the men.

When the church's pastor learned about the arrests several hourslater, he took three other church members with him to inquire at thepolice station. All four were promptly arrested as well, with thepastor isolated from the rest of his congregation.

The morning after his arrest, the pastor was brought out into theprison courtyard and publicly tortured and humiliated in front ofhis jailed congregation. Guards forced the pastor, who limpsnoticeably from having polio as a child, to take off his shoes andwalk barefoot over sharp, jagged pebbles for a half hour. Althoughhis feet did not bleed, it was "very, very painful," one sourceconfirmed to Compass.

That same morning, the three children who had been separated fromthe rest of the group were beaten and released, with strict warningsto "never again" attend such religious meetings.

The Philadelphia Church prisoners were crammed into two cells,segregating the men and women. One local source said there wasbarely room in the men's cell for all of them to lie down to sleepat night. "We were told to relieve ourselves in the cell, but therewas no place for that," the source said. "The cell was filthy andvery hot, and we were suffocating to get air, a witness said. Thecells were kept locked all day except for a half-hour at 5 a.m. whenprisoners were allowed out to go to the toilet.

The detained church members were later transferred to the Adi AbitoMilitary Prison outside Asmara, away from their pastor. Althoughmilitary guards told them that their pastor had denied his beliefsand promised to return to the Orthodox Church, the congregation allrefused to believe it. "Anyway, Jesus is our Savior too, not justour pastor's," they reportedly told the guards. "We will not denyHim."

After eight days in jail, the pastor and most of his congregationwere released on bail. Relatives who guaranteed bail for them wereforced to sign a statement acknowledging that if a bailed prisonerwas caught meeting at the church building or even in his home withmore than three others, he would be liable for execution.

74 SOLDIERS MARK 13 MONTHS IN MILITARY PRISON

In a separate incident, 74 Eritrean soldiers from variousPentecostal congregations incarcerated more than a year ago remainjailed at hard labor in a military prison near the southern portcity of Assab for refusing to recant their personal religiousbeliefs and return to the Orthodox Church.

The soldiers, 13 of them women, were first arrested on February 17last year, along with 59 civilians from three local congregationsgathered for Sunday worship. All 133 worshippers were released thefollowing day, but two weeks later, military authorities re-arrestedthe soldiers and incarcerated them at the Zone Four Military Prisonnear Assab.

About 10 weeks after they were jailed, prison authorities put thePentecostal soldiers in solitary confinement in very small,unlighted cells. For weeks, they were dragged out repeatedly to bebeaten all over their bodies with iron rods encased in plastic. "Itwas very hurtful, and we bled terribly from these beatings," one ofthe flogged soldiers managed to inform a source. "This was done infront of the others, while our tormentors demanded that we deny ourfaith in Jesus."

Reportedly, several more soldiers "caught" reading their Bibles orpraying in small groups in recent months have been arrested andjailed with the original 74 soldiers.

Families and friends of the jailed soldiers, who range from theirearly 20s to 40 years of age, have been refused any contact withthem over the past 13 months. Several are married with families.

Although the 1997 Constitution of Eritrea guarantees religiousfreedom to all citizens, Eritrea's totalitarian government hasbecome increasingly restrictive against the newer Protestantchurches mushrooming across the country within the past five years.Many are led by former members of the Medhanie Alam renewal movementbegun a decade ago within the Eritrean Orthodox Church.

Hundreds of these Christians and their spiritual leaders,excommunicated from the Orthodox Church in 1997, flowed intoexisting Pentecostal churches. Others began their own localfellowships.

Section Four of Article 19 of the 1997 Eritrean Constitutionguarantees that "Every person shall have the freedom to practice anyreligion and to manifest such practice." However, representatives ofthe government's Religious Affairs Department are now insisting thatin order to enjoy legal status, religious groups must "conform tolocal traditions."

Last May, the Department of Religious Affairs ordered thePentecostal and charismatic congregations, as well as theSeventh-day Adventist Church, Buddhists and the Bahai religiousmovement, to complete a wide-ranging application process. Untiltheir registration process was completed, the government decreed,these churches and groups were prohibited from meeting.

Among the requirements were audited financial reports for the past10 years; a list of every member's address, contact information andpersonal property; names and passport numbers of every foreignvisitor; financial dealings with all international sponsors; and alisting of which theological doctrines it holds in comparison withother churches' beliefs.

Eleven months later, the closed churches still have no answer fromtheir government. When church leaders met with the newly appointeddirector of Religious Affairs on April 1 to press for a response, hedeclared that he was uninformed on the issue and would have to getback to them later about it.

"They are cheating us by always postponing our meetings about this,changing the director of the department, and claiming ourregistrations are 'in process,'" one church leader declared lastweek. "We have waited now for 11 months. Our government must actseriously, to reply to us in a responsible way."

END

**********Copyright 2003 Compass Direct

Compass Direct Flash News is distributed as available to raiseawareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for theirfaith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only.

The summary introduction states, "Since the U.S.-led war on Iraq started two weeks ago, much attention has been devoted to the demands and expectations of the country's Shia Muslims, Kurds, and Turkomans. But little has been said about Iraq's Christians, the majority of them known as Assyrians and Chaldeans. RFE/RL takes a closer look at the hopes and fears of this group, whose history is intrinsically linked with that of ancient Mesopotamia."

In the RFE/RL article, the author Jean-Christophe Peuch quotes Joseph Yacoub, a teacher of political science at the French-based Lyon Catholic University. Yacoub, an expert on ethnic and religious minorities, expresses his concern that the worst is yet to come for Iraq's Christian community. "Especially for Iraq's Christian community," he says, "this war is a looming threat because of the confusion that might arise and lead to the perception that a Christian West is fighting a Muslim East. Consequently, there is a risk that Iraq's Christian community might become a scapegoat."

Peuch then gives several examples of how this perception (that this is a religious war) is being unwittingly cultivated by Western political figures.

Of greatest concern is the issue of the draft constitution being proposed for a post-Saddam Iraq.

PROPOSED NEW CONSTITUTION IS ISLAMIC

(Excerpts from the RFE/RL article.)------------------------------------------In the lead-up to the war, meetings have taken place in London between officials of the Bush administration and the Iraqi National Congress (INC), a U.S.-sponsored umbrella organization of groups in opposition to the Baghdad regime.

These meetings notably examined several draft constitutions for a post-Saddam Iraq, which Assyro-Chaldeans -- represented at the talks by the Kurdish-based Assyrian Democratic Movement -- say are detrimental to their community.

AACF (Association of France's Assyro-Chaldeans) leader Adlun said the outcome of a 13-16 December INC conference in London raised serious concerns among Assyro-Chaldeans. "Several draft constitutions were presented [at this meeting], some of them emphasizing Iraq's Arabic and Muslim character. We, of course, disagree with such a wording. What we want is a democratic and secular country. These draft constitutions remain on the table today, and nothing has been decided," Adlun said.

In a letter sent to Bush on 13 January, nine Western European-based Assyro-Chaldean associations expressed their concern at the possibility of post-Saddam Iraq being governed by Shariah, or Islamic law.

"In the draft constitution that was presented at the London conference, the reference to Islam is much stronger than in today's Iraqi Constitution. This was done under the influence of some Shia and Kurdish opposition groups. The current Iraqi Constitution says Islam is the religion of the state but nothing more. There is nothing in there that says Shariah is the root of the existinglegislation, while the text that was presented [in London] is clearly Islamic. It describes Shariah as the source of tomorrow's legal norms, and the least we can say is that it raises concerns," Religious minorities expert Yacoub said.

Assyro-Chaldeans argue that they are underrepresented in opposition meetings and fear they might be equally underrepresented in Iraq's future parliament.

In addition, as AACF leader Adlun pointed out, recent U.S.-sponsored opposition talks in London and Ankara have so far failed to take the large Christian communities of Baghdad and Basra into account.